Papermaking belts, well known in the art, are utilized for producing patterned paper. The paper made by utilizing a papermaking belt of the type disclosed in this invention is described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,239 issued to Trokhan on Jul. 9, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,523 issued to Trokhan et al. on May 7, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,715 issued to Trokhan et al. on Apr. 2, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,289 issued to Trokhan et al. on Aug. 2, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,467 issued to Trokhan et al. on Sep. 10, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,345 issued to Johnson et al. on Apr. 30, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,326 issued to Trokhan et al. on Jul. 9, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,509 issued to Trokhan et al. on Sep. 17, 1996; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,876 issued to Ayers et al. on May. 13, 1997, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Papermaking belts are typically composed of two key components: a reinforcing element; and a resinous polymer as taught by Trokhan '239 and Johnson et al. '345. The resins utilized to make the papermaking belts of these teachings suffer from a common drawback wherein as the resins age during papermaking, embrittlement, cracking and resin loss occur resulting in reduced belt life. It is believed that resin elongation is the key property lost as aging occurs.
The object of this invention is to provide a papermaking belt comprised of a cured resinous polymer exhibiting improved ultimate elongation defined as the elongation at the breaking point. Another object of this invention is to improve papermaking belt life by providing a papermaking belt with improved resin elongation at elevated temperatures without an undue loss of creep resistance, tensile strength and/or hardness at elevated temperature relative to the prior art.